Handgun
in Lining of Bag – Officers at Seattle (SEA) discovered a
.32 caliber pistol loaded with six rounds in the lining of a carry-on bag.

Inert
Grenades Etc. – We continue to find inerthand grenades and other
weaponry on weekly basis. Please keep in mind that if an itemlooks like a bomb, grenade,
mine, etc., it is prohibited - real or not. When these items are found at a
checkpoint, they can cause significant delays. I know they are cool novelty
items, but it is best not to take them on a plane.Read here and here on why
inert items cause problems.

A grenade shaped candle
was discovered at Myrtle Beach (MYR) in the carry-on bag of a passenger.

Unfortunately
these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about
these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are
finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the
throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up
with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. This is a friendly reminder
to please leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on
an individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law
enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had
these items.

47 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Hi - an interesting and useful resource, but most of your informational links (see for example those regarding inert hand grenades) link to passworded TSA sites and are thus useless to the public.Thanks

You forgot to add that $500 a TSO stole from a passenger as retaliation for his complaining. Don't forget to add that one to your police log.

http://tinyurl.com/9owxpjo

I know the TSA doesn't punish passengers for complaining. I know the TSA doesn't in any way bully anyone. I know that the TSA doesn't steal because you have a Zero Tolerance policy on that. All of these articles saying otherwise just have to be lies.

is it that passenger do not know about bring in a gun on an airplane?..just declare it at front desk and put it in your check bag..what happens to the people you catch with handguns on carry-on bags..you don't mention what happens to these peoples.

First, I am no longer going to offer you any kind of congratulations because finding stuff is your job. I do my job every week and for a reward I get a pay check. Why should you get anything more than a pay check?

Second, the item about the pellets and primers.... " in checked baggage"

How is that a threat to aviation if it is in checked baggage? That puts the bad stuff pretty far away from the people that could use it with it being in the cargo hold of the aircraft and away from the passenger for about 95% of the time the passenger is at the airport.

Hey Bob, how about we talk about the most recent incident of "THEFT BY TSA" which happened at LAX? I'm willing to bet more and more incidents such as this are going to be highlighted by news agences since the credibiltiy of TSA continues to take a nose dive. It just peaves me off to have to put up with the rudness and arrogance displayed by TSOs at the same time they are stealing my personal property. It just makes my day to see TSA in the news each day.

I am rather impressed that the TSO's at SeaTac were able to find that small pistol. I would assume that the group on the north end of the concourse that made this find? The TSO's I've encountered on that end have always seemed to be the best trained and most professional in the airport. I'm beginning to believe that the local manager starts all the new TSO's on the south end and then promotes to the north.

BTW, SEA South: if your new-hire baggage scanner operator cannot figure out the difference between an external hard-drive case and an Apple (yuck! As if I would own one.) laptop, your operator needs remedial training.

Hey Bob, I thought it was pretty slick of you to include all the space/blank lines in this article so you could push the article about the IPad theft off the main page. You guys/gals at TSA are so slick......NOT....

"what happens to the people you catch with handguns on carry-on bags..you don't mention what happens to these peoples."

Nothing. Because they're forgetful and/or dumb, not dangerous; that's why Blogger Bob, AKA Curtis Burns, will never list what happens to these people. TSA uses these lists to try to create a climate of perpetual hysteria and make people think airports are under constant siege, when, in fact, terrorists are incredibly rare - TSA has never found nor stopped one, in much the same way that its invasive and dangerous body scanners have never detected a genuine threat. So Blogger Bob, AKA Curtis Burns, will never answer your question, because that would undo all of the careful dishonesty in these weekly reports of Stuff Carried By Stupid And/Or Forgetful People Who Are Not Terrorists Or Otherwise Dangerous.

Hey Bob, any comments on the breast cancer survivors in KCI who where not offered a private screening/pat down? Just another example of the insensitive TSOs employed by TSA. Hardly a day passes that we don't hear about another prime example of how arrogant and rude and inconsiderate TSA employees are. Oh, and how about the report that your boys and girls in NJ have failed so badly at detecting "dangerous" items during screenings? The incompentance, rudeness, and arrogance of TSA never ceases to amaze me. The TSA motto should be "We'll violate you and then steal your stuff..have a nice day".

Any comments on how your TSA employees treated Michelle Dunaj during her screening at SEA-TAC? If this incident is true, and I can't imagine why this lady would lie, there should be a complete house cleaning of all TSA agents involved. Just another example of how rude, arrogant, inconsiderate, and self important TSA employees are and exemplifies the treatment I have experienced when dealing with TSA. Another job well done by TSA.......

What happens to people with a gun in a carry-on? Really?? You don't know the answer to this? They are immediately arrested and taken to the local jail.

You said TSA has never found nor stopped a terrorist. How do you know this? For every prohibited item confiscated at a checkpoint (literally thousands per day) TSA has stopped a potential terrorist. Think about it this way.... if a policeman parks his patrol car in an active schoolzone (in plain view of all drivers to see) everyone will usually slow down and do the speed limit. Using your logic (or lack thereof) the police car is a wasted effort because the officer failed to catch any school zone speeders. Wrong! The fact is we will never know how many drivers would have driven over the speed limit had the police car not been parked there. It's called deterrence. If you don't know the meaning look it up in a dictionary (if you own one). TSA deters potential terrorists from boarding planes. Check the facts, no terrorist attempts since TSA was started. 100% is called a perfect score.

And to those belly aching about the TSA officer who stole an IPAD from a passenger..... people in all professions steal from others every single day by the thousands. Get back to reality folks!!

"Dying woman gets security pat-down at Sea-Tac.... Michelle Dunaj says screeners checked under bandages from recent surgeries and refused to give her a private search when she requested one..... A machine couldn't get a reading on her saline bags, so a TSA agent forced one open, contaminating the fluid she needs to survive....."

I'm sure Bob is putting the finishing touches on his response post right now:

"TSA officers are highly trained professionals who are held to the highest standards of integrity and professionalism. TSA standards require them to treat all passengers with the utmost courtesy. Officers receive special training in handling passengers with special needs, and are particularly sensitive to the needs of passengers with medical problems.

After a thorough investigation of this incident, the TSA has determined that the officers involved in this screening acted properly, and carried out the patdown in full compliance with all standards and procedures. As always, TSA is committed to providing the maximum assistance to passengers with special medical needs, as they did here."

All the wonderful pictures of guns and knives. How many were found in 84 year old women's colonostomy bags or a leukemia patients IV bag (after it was torn open and contaminated of course) My guess, absolutely none. You can keep posting those pictures of guns and knives, but until your policy removes the ridiculous and humiliating practices, you will never be a respected form of government

I read today on CNN about how the TSA abused a women who is dying of luekemia. The TSA opened one of her saline bags, ruining it. They refused to allow her a private screening room and they lifted her shirt and made her remove her bandages and pulled and yanked on her feeding tubes. The TSA simply just does not perform well. It is a broken organization that never worked well and does very,very little right. The TSA should be dismantled. The TSA abuses our civil rights.

"You said TSA has never found nor stopped a terrorist. How do you know this?"

Because my mother taught me how to read.

"For every prohibited item confiscated at a checkpoint (literally thousands per day) TSA has stopped a potential terrorist."

No. The same mother who taught me to read once had her lipstick confiscated by TSA because it wasn't in a baggie. Prohibited item? Sure, since TSA decided to prohibit completely harmless items. Potential terrorist? Not at all.

"TSA deters potential terrorists from boarding planes. Check the facts, no terrorist attempts since TSA was started. 100% is called a perfect score."

You can't deter what isn't happening. There have been no leopard attacks on household pets since I bought a Mazda; therefore, my Mazda and I have a 100% perfect score on preventing leopard attacks in my neighborhood.

Anonymous @ October 9, 5:46 PM, would you like to buy my tiger-repellant rock? It's 100% effective, since I haven't been attacked by a tiger since I put it on my desk. Check the facts! It's a steal at $8 billion a year. How about it?

Chip and Andy said... First, I am no longer going to offer you any kind of congratulations because finding stuff is your job. I do my job every week and for a reward I get a pay check. Why should you get anything more than a pay check?

Second, the item about the pellets and primers.... " in checked baggage"

How is that a threat to aviation if it is in checked baggage? That puts the bad stuff pretty far away from the people that could use it with it being in the cargo hold of the aircraft and away from the passenger for about 95% of the time the passenger is at the airport.

October 6, 2012 7:18 AM----------------------And airlines thought oxygen generators in the belly were perfectly safe until several exploded and caused a flight to explode over florida swamps a couple years back. But, I guess you feel its OK to transport explosive material haphazardly in checked bags.Way to go TSA! I dont want this crap on a plane i'm on!

People should stop grousing about the little things. This article is about how TSA successfully stops weapons from entering the plane. TSA, at the point of the spear of the New World Order's security apparatus, shows itself successful at preventing the wholesale movement of weapons and dangerous devices.

You said TSA has never found nor stopped a terrorist. How do you know this? For every prohibited item confiscated at a checkpoint (literally thousands per day) TSA has stopped a potential terrorist. .... TSA deters potential terrorists from boarding planes. Check the facts, no terrorist attempts since TSA was started. 100% is called a perfect score.

Almost, but not quite.

As far as the TSA is concerned, anyone who presents themselves at a TSA checkpoint is a potential terrorist. Flying is a privilege granted or denied at the exclusive discretion of the TSA. The privilege may be granted if the screening process rebuts the automatic presumption that the passenger is a terrorist, and convinces the TSA officer that granting the privilege is in the best interest of National Security.

The fact that all passengers are assumed to be guilty of terrorism or other crimes justifies officers treating them like convicted felons. Strip search scanning and intimate pat downs are appropriate measures for dealing with people assumed to be criminals, as is rudeness, bellowing of orders, and arbitrary confiscation of property deemed contraband.

Some TSA employees recognize that the overwhelming majority of passengers are not criminals and terrorists, and treat them with the professional respect and courtesy that Bob claims is expected of all TSA employees. But the TSA as an institution operates under the assumption that passengers are dangerous enemies, and the officer's job is to discover any contraband items. That completely excuses the many officers who do not treat passengers with respect and courtesy. Bellowing orders and humiliating passengers is just something they do because the enemy deserves it. Nobody is holding them accountable for professional respect and courtesy. Those "standards" are only mentioned when a TSA employee does something so egregious that it requires Bob to remind us of the standards after informing us that the TSA employee acted properly.

Stealing crosses the line, but only if someone outside the TSA finds out about it and makes a fuss over it. If it remains secret, it's fine. Looting from defeated enemies is a privilege long enjoyed by soldiers on the battlefield, and TSA officers are heroically fighting thousands of enemies a day at the front lines of the War on Terror. As long as they don't get caught and create embarrassment for the TSA, it's perfectly fine.

Getting back to your comment, the TSA have surely deterred many potential terrorists from boarding airplanes. Specifically, they have made flying so unpleasant that many people who would otherwise be airline passengers (i.e., potential terrorists) have chosen to give up flying. I don't know if that's the sort of "deterrence" John Pistole is looking for, but his screening procedures that cause needless frustration and risk to belongings have indeed succeeded in deterring people from flying. I'm sure he's appropriately proud of that achievement.

As for the "perfect score," it doesn't prove the effectiveness TSA screening. The lack of a repeat of 9/11 could represent Al-Qaeda's belief that it's not necessary, or that they've moved on to planning attacks on other targets that can't be "protected" with intrusive mass screening.

I think the real reason, though, is my patent-pending Anti-Terrorism Spray. Ever since the tragedy of 9/11 inspired me to invent it, I have sprayed it into the air every day as a public service to my Homeland. It has a perfect record of 100% effectiveness.

And to those belly aching about the TSA officer who stole an IPAD from a passenger..... people in all professions steal from others every single day by the thousands. Get back to reality folks!!

Do you really find that behavior acceptable? Especially when it involves an officer in a position of trust, working for an agency whose (supposed) mission is SECURITY?

There are SOOOOO many ways to defeat the TSA 'security' that any terrorist with two brain cells to rub together can do it. For instance:

-Bribe a TSA screener (tell him your just smuggling drugs)-Wear the weapon/bomb on the side of your body (where the x-ray scanner misses it)-Simply walk onto the airfield with whatever equipment you desire-Slip something into the delivery for a business inthe 'secure' area-grab silverware from a restaurant in the 'secure' area of the airport-shove the C-4 up... well, lets say a body cavity... before going thru the checkpoint...and these are just the methods that have already been shown to work (by non-terrorists, thank god). There are plenty more that have yet to be discovered, I'm sure.

Thus, it appears that the TSA is NOT actually a deterrence to any terrorists.

Check the facts, no terrorist attempts since TSA was started. 100% is called a perfect score.

I'd like to buy your rock.

In case you don't understand that, it's a Simpsons reference. Lisa attempts to show Homer the error of his logic by saying she has a magical rock that keeps away tigers. Of course it's just... a rock. But you don't see any tigers around, do you? In the same way a "perfect score" means... nothing. If no terrorists attempt to take over any planes, then ALL security strategies (including no security, TSA Security Theatre, and Draconian strip searches) appear effective. But it's not the security that's responsible for the lack of terrorist activities- it's the lack of terrorists.

Chip and Andy said... [[First, I am no longer going to offer you any kind of congratulations because finding stuff is your job. I do my job every week and for a reward I get a pay check. Why should you get anything more than a pay check?

Second, the item about the pellets and primers.... " in checked baggage"

How is that a threat to aviation if it is in checked baggage? That puts the bad stuff pretty far away from the people that could use it with it being in the cargo hold of the aircraft and away from the passenger for about 95% of the time the passenger is at the airport.]]

Lets start with the simple stuff there chip. Black powder is an explosive. Period. Not allowed on commercial passenger aircraft and has not been for decades.

Primers. Primers are a shock sensitive explosive initiator. Both items in the same bag spells “dangerous”, and not the brightest idea I have ever heard of. I keep my primers in a totally separate locker from my powder. Its common sense, something that is obviously not all that common.

Your agency was NOT created to find guns inside carry on bags. It was created to stop terrorists!

Your agency needs to be defunded and eliminated! You are helping to rob American's of the freedom of travel. I will not fly an airplane in the US again because of you.

If your agency starts doing what it does outside airports in a way that gets in my face I will join with others to protest your agency on every street corner and will work to rally my fellow Americans against you.

I just read of your treatment of a woman with leukemia by the name of Michelle Dunaj. Disgusting! It makes me sick the way your agents treat innocent Americans!

I don't think this post will make it through your moderation but you who are reading this...do you really want to work for an agency that treats people that way!

"you said TSA has never found nor stopped a terrorist. How do you know this? For every prohibited item confiscated at a checkpoint (literally thousands per day) TSA has stopped a potential terrorist."

Hmmm. What exactly is a "potential terrorist?". Someone who might try to do something to disrupt air travel? If I stand up during a flight and yell, "I have a bomb!" am I a terrorist? (you might want to do some research before you answer)

If so, isn't everyone capable of yelling a potential terrorist?

Now back to the real question: Although the TSA has allowed 16 individuals on the terrorist watch list to fly, has it ever caught a terrorist?

Here's the answer to RB's repeated request of Bob to tell us if the TSA is required to touch the genitals during a patdown. This was posted by Sommer Gentry at boardingarea.com/blogs/flyingwithfish:

"As for the “resistance” question, the TSA Privacy Officer (do I even need to say that this is a shocking oxymoron and self-contradictory title?) Peter Pietra confirmed to me when I met him that yes, the official instructions to a TSA screener are that they must put their hands directly on your genitalia in a patdown."

Obviously you are the same person I have addressed before but I'm bored so I will prove you wrong again.

"You cant deter what isn't happening"---Hello!! If it hasn't happened then you have detered it. Don't be so naive. The fact that hijackings used to happen and then all of a sudden stopped when TSA was created is not a coincidence. And your Mother is only one person. If you read my entry entirely, you would have seen it said "stopped a potential terrorist". It doesn't say everyone who has prohibited items are all terrorists. Oh, and maybe if your mother had researched what are prohibited items ahead of time then she wouldn't have had it taken away. Read people! It's amazing what you will learn by just reading. It entirely her fault the lipstick was taken not TSA. And if she doesn't know how to read then she should have asked!!

And to the very intellectual "Tiger repellant" writer-- you can't repel things that aren't there in the first place. Tigers weren't roaming your hallways before you got that mystical rock you always speak of. Try taking that same rock to Africa and see how well it repels down there. Your analogy is way off the mark.

Well Bob, we’re still waiting for your comments on the latest examples of TSA criminality, arrogance and incompetence when dealing with the traveling public. Recently we have all read about more incidents of theft, more cases of failure to properly inspect checked baggage, and even more concerning, violations of cancer patients and a terminally ill patient who was just trying to take a final trip to Hawaii. But we have heard absolutely nothing from your spin machine. Even though I think these issues should be addressed by Mr. Pistole in front of Congress, it would be nice to see how you dispel these accusations by telling us the TSOs all acted with respect, followed procedures, and never did anything wrong. I just find it so alarming that you always discard accusations such as these as just big lies. Now ask yourself, why would numerous breast cancer survivors or a terminally ill woman make such claims? Do they have some hidden agenda? Were they imagining the events they spoke about? Or, did your TSOs show their rude, arrogant, discourteous, thoughtless behavior I have witnessed so often when traveling through airports in America? Come on Bob stand up and defend your workforce. Tell us how great they are and how they are worth eight billion dollars. Tell us how lucky we are to be abused and then robbed. We’re all waiting.

And airlines thought oxygen generators in the belly were perfectly safe until several exploded and caused a flight to explode over florida swamps a couple years back. But, I guess you feel its OK to transport explosive material haphazardly in checked bags.Way to go TSA! I dont want this crap on a plane i'm on!

October 10, 2012 11:40 AM...............Think you should do a little research before posting.

O2 generators were not ok in the belly of any aircraft and should not have been transported by that means.

"However, the NTSB determined that just before takeoff, expired chemical oxygen generators were placed in the cargo compartment in five boxes marked COMAT (Company-owned material) by ValuJet's maintenance contractor, SabreTech, in contravention of FAA regulations forbidding the transport of hazardous materials in aircraft cargo holds."

"The fact that hijackings used to happen and then all of a sudden stopped when TSA was created is not a coincidence."

How many aircraft were hijacked in the US during the two decades prior to 9/11? The answer is NONE.

The TSA has done NOTHING to stop hijackings.

To use John Pistole's term, 9/ll was a "one off", no matter how much DHS/TSA blathers about increasing threats to aircraft. It's just their way of trying to keep the population frightened and obedient.

And these are only the hijacking attempts. Many other forms of terrorism in the United States have taken place since. GTD has a pretty complete historical listing of acts of terrorism around the globe. Next time, try the link I provided before making an inaccurate assumption.

Anonymous said..."You cant deter what isn't happening"---Hello!! If it hasn't happened then you have detered it.

A meteor hasn't hit you on the head, therefore, I have personally deterred it from happening.

I hope you see the illogic in that. If not....

The fact that hijackings used to happen and then all of a sudden stopped when TSA was created is not a coincidence.

Hijackings were rare to begin with. The 'terrorist-crash-into-a-building' hijackings only happened ONCE- on 9/11. You cannot reach a conclusion on ONE data point.

Oh, and maybe if your mother had researched what are prohibited items ahead of time then she wouldn't have had it taken away.

You'd think so. But there are plenty of examples of the TSA screeners banning items that are explicitly permitted by the rules. So reading and obeying the rules is still no guarantee that the item won't be taken.

And to the very intellectual "Tiger repellant" writer-- you can't repel things that aren't there in the first place.

That's THE POINT. The TSA can't deter terrorists if there are none trying to board planes in the first place.

And terrorists weren't 'roaming the airways', crashing planes into buildings every day before the TSA was created. Yes, it happened on 9/11. But that's ONE incident. See above about making conclusions from one data point.

... and even more concerning, violations of cancer patients and a terminally ill patient who was just trying to take a final trip to Hawaii. But we have heard absolutely nothing from your spin machine. Even though I think these issues should be addressed by Mr. Pistole in front of Congress, it would be nice to see how you dispel these accusations by telling us the TSOs all acted with respect, followed procedures, and never did anything wrong. I just find it so alarming that you always discard accusations such as these as just big lies..... Come on Bob stand up and defend your workforce. Tell us how great they are and how they are worth eight billion dollars. Tell us how lucky we are to be abused and then robbed. We're all waiting.

We're never going to see anything about that incident from Bob's spin machine. Just like we're never going to see anything about the racial profiling quotas in Boston, the drug smuggling bribery cases in Los Angeles, or anything else that shines a bright light on the TSA's systemic failings.

It's now clear that Bob only responds to incidents where the accusations have been proved spurious. That gives him an opportunity to defend the workforce, to remind us of the standards that apply to screening (in theory, if not in practice), and above all to convey the all-important Message that the TSA is always right.

Conversely, when a reported incident is true, when TSA employees did not act properly, and when the conduct is so clearly inexcusable and indefensible that not even Bob can formulate a remotely convincing lie to defend it, he just ignores it.

When your job is to keep the pig's lips painted a glossy red at all times, and to convey the Message that the TSA is always right, that's the only thing to do when the TSA is clearly wrong. That's presumably how Bob can sleep soundly at night. He tells the truth (or at least spins his story from a kernel of truth) when it supports the Message. But when the truth when it can't be denied, spun, or twisted into supporting the Message, he follows the example of the monkeys who see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.

Since the TSA has banished the Fourth Amendment from its checkpoints, we can safely assume the Fifth doesn't apply either. So we can take Bob's silence on these serious revelations as an admission that the TSA did not act properly. And also that they have no intention of fixing the systemic failings that cause these unmentionable incidents to keep occurring.

If John Pistole really believes that ignoring his agency's serious problems agency will make them go away, he needs to join the ranks of the unemployed.

Your first example of a "hijacking" is laughable, Ron. It was a small plane.

Your second two examples are perplexing. An internet search for a BLN hijacking on 3.25.84 brings results back only to your wonderful "terrorist" database"

"On March 25, 1984, a man claiming to be "Lieutenant Spartacus" of the "Black Liberation Army," hijacked a Piedmont airlines jet with 58 passengers on board. The plane flew to Cuba where "Lieutenant Spartacus" found asylum."

An internet search for a BLN hijacking on 3.28.1984 does bring a result: a Delta flight from Newark to Maimi ended up in Cuba. That flight was hijacked by someone who called himself Lt. Spartacus and who was a member of the BLN.

Your revered data is wrong, Ron. There never was a hijacking on 3.25.84

"You cant deter what isn't happening"---Hello!! If it hasn't happened then you have detered it.

Then the tiger analogy is valid. If tigers aren't there, then you have deterred them.

"And to the very intellectual "Tiger repellant" writer-- you can't repel things that aren't there in the first place. Tigers weren't roaming your hallways before you got that mystical rock you always speak of."

You're only assuming that tigers weren't roaming his hallways, but you've said yourself that if it isn't happening, then it's been deterred. You can't have it both ways. But, just to be clear, change "tiger" to "burglar," and the analogy holds for most of the population.

Think it's a shame that people feel they can bring any type of firearm onto a plane. No one should ever need a firearm on a plane especially when no one else has one. If your life were ever in danger on a plane, let just hope that the security on the plane would be there to do his/her job. For those that feel as if they need a gun on a plane to defend their-self, then I advise you to spend you money on some kick boxing classes - instead of buying a firearm.

Marcus G said..."Think it's a shame that people feel they can bring any type of firearm onto a plane. No one should ever need a firearm on a plane especially when no one else has one. If your life were ever in danger on a plane, let just hope that the security on the plane would be there to do his/her job. For those that feel as if they need a gun on a plane to defend their-self, then I advise you to spend you money on some kick boxing classes - instead of buying a firearm."

No one said they felt they could bring a gun on board. Maybe they forgot they were there? And, again, who said any were brought on to defend themselves? Because Blogger Bob does not post what happens to those who had these items, we have no idea why they had guns on them. Only that they were not terrorists, or we'd certainly hear about that.

thanks for the information about TSA Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality. Travelers should familiarize themselves with state and local firearm laws for each point of travel prior to departure.